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Ripken: It's great to see him succeed

You've heard it all summer.

When people talk of the home run derby between Mark McGwire and Sandy Sosa, they almost always say how happy they are to see such success going to pro athletes who are solid citizens and nice people.

That also applies -- and even more so -- to the accomplishments of Cal Ripken. The infielder for the Baltimore Orioles Sunday night ended his record streak of consecutive Major League baseball games started.

There's a good chance his mark of 2,632 games -- which started more than 18 years ago -- will never be broken.

It's amazing that Ripken had the good fortune to play that long without an injury that would have forced him to miss a game.

And that's cause for us to say it again. If someone was to have the skiils, stamina and good fortune to play 18 years without missing a game, we're glad it was not one of today's players that demonstrate the traits that have tainted professional sports: greed, lewdness and rudeness, self pity, arrogance, lack of self control and lasciviousness.

Cal Ripken is the kind of person you'd like to have living next door or coaching your kids. He's the role model we mistakenly expect from too many other professional athletes.

Besides setting a record for consecutive games started, he set one for class.

It's a pleasure to have seen him succeed.